During the two years we were vegetarians on Bev's doctors orders (until she almost died because of carbohydrate insensitivity), we enjoyed a great variety of dishes. Many of them were much too spicy for Chablis. You want a very rich dish without the heat. Something with wild mushrooms, eggplant, green stuff, and pasta.

Thanks for the offer...
My brother's girlfriend (almost fiancee) has it, as well as his childhood best friend, so i will have lots of resources, but I appreciate the offer very much.

I hope I don't have it, but some part of me hopes I do have it-- if that's the case going gluten-free should help my joint and stomach problems, as well as some other things.

Foodie, he symptoms really vary widely. It's an autoimmune disorder where gluten is reacted to as toxic in your lower intestine. The villi get all beat up and you have trouble absorbing a variety of nutrients. Most common are stomach problems ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to just some gas or heartburn. Also joint problems, skin problems, depression and some other things can happen.

My brother's girlfriend was misdiagnosed with Lupus and other allergies for years before they figured it out. She had a wide variety of major ailments, which have mostly cleared up.
His childhood best friend had pretty much no symptoms except the worst smelling gas of anyone I've ever met. They did panel blood-work on him before he went to Israel to study for Rabbinical school and it turned out he has it. It was a big surprise for him, but even though he was asymptomatic at that point it was great that they found it. People that have it and don't know about it have high rates of intestinal cancers and other things later in life as well as other serious things.

The good news is that by avoiding wheat, barley and rye no further harm is done and frequently many problems get reversed.

If the blood work turns up positive for a handful of antibodies, the next step is a small bowel biopsy. We'll see...

If I understand correctly then, it's a gluten intolerance, not a general carbohydrate intolerance. Would that mean gluten-free pasta, etc. is ok to eat? There are one or two on the market that are edible--I think ww found one recently. Pasta made from artichoke or something like it.

WW, I've read posts that report that since this is not a carb-extraction tecnology in the pasta, but a conversion to a less-digestible version, cooking the pasta in an acidic tomato based sauce reduced some of this capability. However, stirring in the sauce after was better. (source: http://www.mendosa.com/dreamfields_pasta.htm_. I do not know of this website but only a google reference.

I've cooked the pasta separately and then added the Maceo after. I can attest that it seems to be as advertised as after 4 different lunches my weight hasn't been affected. Received my case of the "Tomato Gravy" today. Dad-burned good stuff. Ordering a case of the Dreamfields ASAP. WW